Director Ron Shelton, whose new movie is the Harrison Ford/Josh Hartnett cop-buddy flick Hollywood Homicide, says he wasn’t too upset when the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled a tribute screening of his best-known film, Bull Durham, because of the outspoken political views of two of its stars, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. " I got more ink by not going, " says Shelton, whose own minor-league career inspired Bull Durham. " And I didn’t have to figure out how to fly to Albany and drive to Cooperstown. True, I did want to go because it’s a neat place, and it was the only way I was ever going to get into the Hall of Fame. But the backlash and the editorial response across the country — in fact, we got things from France — about how ridiculous this was was gratifying. It actually raised a dialogue nationally about where is this country going. "

Less amusing was the effect the patriotic mood of the country had on Dark Blue, his gritty cop flick about police corruption in the LAPD around the time of the Rodney King riots. " The country was right about to go to war, and the only movies people were going to were really light comedies. How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and all of those kind of movies were huge. And here’s a guy in uniform, and the country did not want to be asking questions about guys in uniform even if it’s a cop or whatever. It was a hard movie to open. "

He’s hoping more will show up for Hollywood Homicide, a very similar picture — a couple of unorthodox LAPD detectives under investigation in the aftermath of a mass murder — with the added ingredients of comedy, hip-hop, rising young hunk Hartnett, and long-in-the-tooth superstar Ford. " After Dark Blue I wanted to have fun. I wanted something lighter. My original idea was probably a much grittier movie, and then I saw it become zanier after I got the cast together. And I liked that. I didn’t know that Harrison would embrace stealing a bike from a little girl and a cab from an old lady, or that he would embrace the line ‘If I take my ginkgo, I can remember where I put the Viagra.’ But when I shot the opening murders — because I shot them before anything else — they’re very brutal. When I tested the movie, the audience was so taken aback by the killing, they couldn’t give in to the comedy. So I cut it. "

There are no pesky questions in Hollywood Homicide, but there are explosions. And a car chase. " I always said I’ll never blow up cars in my directing career. But I blew one up. And you’ve got to flip the cop car. If you don’t, there’s going to be a whole bunch of young boys in the theater who say, ‘You didn’t flip the cop car,’ like they’ve never seen it before. So I flipped a cop car.

" It was a long chase, yeah. But Harrison stealing a bike from a girl and jumping in the cab — that stuff’s fun, running in and out of a subway is fun. The only thing that made the car chase interesting is Harrison trying to make phone calls during it, trying to unload real estate. That made the car chase exquisite for me. "

Will all these ingredients add up? " I don’t know how my movies are ever going to do. Sometimes I think no one’s going to go, and they’re hits. And sometimes I think they’re going to go, and they aren’t. I never know. I mean, I’m not as cavalier as I sound. I need to make successful movies or I can’t work. ‘As good as your last picture’ is not a joke in this town. I need to make successful movies. I think this movie will be successful. I don’t know if it’ll be successful enough to do what you have to do in the summer. I don’t know any of that stuff. We don’t have any special effects. We have humor that people tell me is ‘offbeat.’ I don’t think it’s offbeat; I think it’s the world I know, but you know, will it fit? Will it fit into June? I made one other movie that came out in June, and that was called Bull Durham. I thought they were crazy to put that out in June. "

Hollywood Homicide opens this Friday, June 13. My review is elsewhere on this site; for theaters and times, see " Film Listings. "